Hello and greetings, today we will continue with a new chapter in the book Brit Shalom, which provides guidance for Bnei Noah.
Today, we are opening Chapter 5, which deals with the preservation of human life, or in other words, the laws regarding the prohibition of murder – that it is forbidden to kill. The prohibition of killing is, of course, a universal one, even without the Noahide laws. All righteous people in the world understand that killing is wrong, so we could summarize this entire teaching with the commandment "You shall not murder." However, we will see that there are many details to this topic. There is always the question of when it might be permissible to kill.
What is considered "alive" and what is considered "dead"? When is a person considered to be alive, such as the case with a fetus? When is a person considered to be dead, for example, in the case of someone who is dying? These are some of the questions we will address.
Indeed, this chapter includes many details. At the beginning, I have brought two verses from the Torah: one from the covenant between God and Noah, and the other from the Ten Commandments.
The first verse: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has He made man." What does "by man shall his blood be shed" mean? It means that it is the duty of mankind to shed the blood of anyone who sheds blood. In other words, this is the responsibility of the courts and the state—to not allow a murderer to live. This is further abbreviated in the Sixth Commandment of the Ten Commandments: "You shall not murder." These are universal situations that bind all of humanity.
Let us now read the first sections. In the first section, we are no longer talking about laws, but about principles. The first is the statement of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva says: "Beloved is man, for he was created in the image of God." This means that since man was created in the image of God, no matter how we interpret this phrase, it signifies that human life has special value.
Furthermore, Rabbi Akiva said: "Love your neighbor as yourself—this is a great principle in the Torah." That is, if we are talking about the general direction of the Torah, if a person learns or teaches Torah, and the general outcome of their learning is "Love your neighbor as yourself," we know they are aligned with the purpose of the Torah. If what emerges is not "Love your neighbor as yourself," this raises a question about the value of their Torah study in general.
